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| Twin Rocks, Utah |
This was my first road trip in years – to drive, or rather be driven - halfway up and halfway east across the US to see the total solar eclipse of 21st August 2017. We would go from our base camp, Phoenix, AZ. to (most probably) Riverton, WY. On the way we would spend some time on historical Route 66, explore Denver, Cheyenne, the rock formations of Utah, Canyon de Chelly, Taos, and half a dozen National Parks and National Forests. We were about to go glamping, as a local told me it is called. We examined this word thoroughly and found it wanting, so it shall not be used.
My starting point was Orange County, CA, where I’ve lived for almost thirty years. This is on the West Coast and just 60 miles or so from the Mexican border. STB, my travel companion, lives in Phoenix, AZ, so the first leg of the trip entailed getting to Phoenix. In preparation for this momentous event, I’d planned sufficiently far in advance to obtain Global Entry, the TSA’s internal and global queue-jumping program. If you pay $100, get fingerprinted, photographed and background checked, and have an in-person interview only 50 miles from your house, you too can save time in airport queues!
This cunning plan worked well until I got to the airport where I was berated for having my hoodie over my shoulder (I should have been “wearing it”) and “randomly selected to have my shoes checked”, so I had to take my shoes off and have them sniffed anyway. On the plus side, it was a shorter line than the regular one, and I didn't have to juggle my laptop, baggie of lotions and purse while waiting barefoot.
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| To Phoenix |
STB technically had the day off work, but in practice had been called in as usual, so his accommodating workmate Adam came to the airport to pick me up. As I stood outside Phoenix airport Terminal 3, it became evident I was wearing a nice warm fleece hoodie and it was 100 degrees outside. Luckily, Adam was on time and picked me up before I had to make any fashion vs. comfort decisions. Adam helpfully dropped me off at an apartment complex that looked amazingly like the correct one, and it was only a 15 minute walk in the Arizona mid-day sun to the correct one. I kept the hoodie on for fear the UVB photons streaming from the sky would strip the flesh from my bones.
STB was off work by the late afternoon and he went to pick up our road trip transport and personal mobile living quarters – a Cruise America RV, specifically a T17. I realize now that she should have had a cool road name, but alas we called her “the RV”. It’s a campervan shell fitted over a F150, short enough and low enough to be considered a normal truck and yet tall enough and spacious enough to feature a double bed, stove, microwave, and a small shoebox which doubled as a shower and a toilet.
(You don't have to watch this if you don't want to. I haven't.)
Filling the RV with enough stuff to last us for next eleven days proved to be a major step in itself. Neither of us had put much thought into the process, so we made several trips to and from the apartment with blankets, coats, cartons of Diet Coke, socks, pillows etc., while I mainly vetoed things on the grounds it was 110 degrees out and we probably wouldn’t need them. We were in Phoenix, remember. One thing I had thought to bring was AAA maps. I'd popped in to see them the week before and I think they were happy someone wanted to come see their paper maps for once. I was quite proud of myself for remembering that GPS does not always work on road trips, particularly given my antique telephone.
Once it was fully loaded, the first leg for The RV - second leg for me - was to Tonto National Forest and the town of Payson, AZ. We hauled our rig (technical term) to the Beeline Café which by some coincidence is on Beeline Road, and fetched up against the counter just as they switched the lights off. Seeing we were weary travelers, the remaining cook and waitress took pity on us and served up a burger-based feast with the still-hot grill and fryer. The waitress was happy to chat, so we soon learned she was waitressing until school started again, and then she’d be off studying Criminal Justice. I’ve known dozens of people who wanted to study that, but I never had much idea what it entails. She did. She wanted to specialize in Forensic Science and had worked out a complicated pathway for getting there. We wished her luck in her endeavors.
She asked where we were from, which is always difficult to answer. England? London? Yorkshire? The OC? Phoenix? We settled on Phoenix, since that was our proximal departure town. She followed that up by asking where we were going and for the life of me I couldn’t remember. I tried to recall some names from the map but my mind was blank, like in a horrible dream. After a brief struggle I came up with the name “Flagstaff”. I had a vague memory that Flagstaff was nice for some reason, but couldn’t recall what the reason may be, except that it’s on Route 66. Then again, 90% of US cities are on Route 66. I also vaguely remembered that it’s high up and has trees.
She was happy with that, and didn’t ask why someone from Phoenix would go to Payson on the way to Flagstaff.
Fully fed, we tested out the First Principle of our new Brotherhood of the Road – which is that, generally speaking, RVs can park overnight at Walmart Supercenters for free, assuming that you maintain respectable levels of politeness to Walmart, keeping out of the way of paying shoppers and buying things from Walmart. And buy we did, because it got to just about freezing overnight (Payson is at 5,000 feet and I’m a sea-level woman) and there were various things we’d either forgotten, or in my case refused to bring, which meant an early morning run to the Walmart the next day for sleeping bags, plates, cups, knives, socks and snacks. Plus more snacks.
Once we'd parked up, Stephen sat in the “living room” in the back while I jumped up into the sleeping area and opened the latch on the fridge. A dozen Diet Coke cans rolled out and hit STB sitting below, one after another like barrels in a cartoon. “Contents may have shifted in flight,” I said.
None of the cans burst.
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| (c) Google. Ignore the times on these maps - they're for one leg, not the whole day |
2 comments:
Just re-read this and watched the video about the camper. Even without volume, it's a pretty effective sales tool. Definitely made me want to go on a road-trip with all those luxurious features.
Oh, and this is KD, signed into Google with my work account.
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